Brett Gardner didn’t want to think about 2022 and his baseball future immediately after the New York Yankees’ 6-2 loss to arch-rival Boston in the American League Wild Card Game on Oct. 5. But in the Fenway Park aftermath of a disappointing end to his 14th Major League season, the former College of Charleston star said he hoped to return to pinstripes in 2022.
He also peeked beyond baseball to a normal family life.
“Right now, if I had to answer, I hope I’m back in that (Yankees clubhouse) and I hope I’m in Tampa (for spring training) come February,” Gardner said in a postgame Zoom interview with reporters. “But there’s obviously a long time between now and then. A lot of things that need to get figured out. We’ll see what happens.”
Gardner, 38 and from Holly Hill, has been with the Yankees organization since he was picked in third round of the 2005 draft.
He hit a career-low .222 in 2021 with 10 home runs and 39 runs batted in over 140 games. Gardner started in center field and hit sixth in the Yankees’ order in the Wild Card game, going 0-for-3.
Gardner re-signed with New York for $4 million just before 2021 spring training and has a player option for $2.3 million in 2022, though the Yankees can buy him out of that deal.
Family will be a big factor in Gardner’s baseball thinking. He lives in Summerville in the offseason with his wife Jessica and two sons.
“They have obviously sacrificed,” Gardner said. “This game has been great to me and great to my family. But the longer you play and the older your kids get, the harder it gets and the more things I miss out on – not being able to see them back home doing their thing. And obviously makes it harder to be together all the time and things like that.”
Gardner is tied for 13th with St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado in career Wins Above Replacement (44.3) among all active Major League position players.
He has 1,470 hits over 1,688 games with the Yankees, and helped them win the 2008 World Series. Among Yankees career leaders, Gardner ranks third in stolen bases (274) behind only Hall of Famers Derek Jeter (358) and Rickey Henderson (326), and eighth in triples (73).
New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner plays air hockey with a patient during one of his many visits to the MUSC Children's Hospital. Gardner, a former College of Charleston player, completed his 14th Major League season when the Yankees lost to Boston in the American League Wild Card Game on Oct. 5. File/Grace Beahm/Staff
The respect for Gardner within the Yankees family is thorough.
Willie Randolph, a longtime Yankees player and former captain (1986-1988) also born in Holly Hill, talked about that during 2020 spring training.
“You don’t have to be the ‘captain’ to be the captain,” Randolph said. “The players know. They know you’re going to play your butt off and you’re going to set an example. They know who the captain is.”
Follow Gene Sapakoff on Twitter @sapakoff
